Fans vote with feet on Gold Coast as Storm edge battle of the B-teams

It was the second smallest crowd of the year, and rival coaches Craig Bellamy and John Cartwright expressed sympathy for all 6497 spectators.

A late flourish helped depleted a Melbourne Storm edge out an equally short-handed Gold Coast Titans 24-20 at CBUS Super Stadium in front of a gathering just 41 heads larger than the figure that had Wests Tigers reconsidering their future in Campbelltown on April 12.

The Titans were further disadvantaged when stand-in halfback Beau Henry suffered an early knee injury which will sideline him for six weeks, while the Storm welcomed forward Jordan McLean - the man involved in Alex McKinnon's tragic tackle - back to first grade.

Cartwright and Bellamy joined fellow NRL coaches Wayne Bennett and Des Hasler in calling for an end to clubs being denied the use of their own players at Origin time.

"I've been talking about it for two or three years," said Bellamy. "It all seems to be too complicated for us to understand how hard it is to change the Origin period. Obviously there's TV rights and whatever.

"We keep talking about the welfare of our players. Sometimes instead of talking about it, we need to do something about it.

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"You'd think it's going to happen at some stage because I don't think Origins are going to get any easier for anyone.

"Without being disrespectful to any team or anyone at all, certainly the NRL games, the standard drops because you've got 34 of your best players not playing.

"The ones I feel for are the fans. We all love Origin, without a doubt, and we don't want to change that ... the fans of the NRL clubs are getting short-changed."

Interviewed shortly before kick-off, Cartwright had said: "I really do feel for the clubs themselves. They pay these guys, they employ the boys to bring the people through the gates and it is a bit sad.

"....not considering how I feel as a coach not having my best players there, that's another thing altogether, but it's the fans who miss out."

One man who returned from Origin camp to play in Monday Night Football, Storm centre Will Chambers, was a key contributor with two tries. He was thought to have a serious leg injury at one stage but finished the game with only a bad cut.

"Obviously you'd love to play State of Origin football - that's the pinnacle," said Chambers, released by Queensland. "But I've come back and done my best. Hopefully one day I get to pull that jersey on."

An offside penalty against Matthew White at the death, with Gold Coast on the attack, was the source of some controversy with Titan Brad Takairangi - who moved into the halves with Henry's departure - saying: "I'm not too sure what the call was - that kills, you having a shot like that to win the game and having a call like that in the end."

But Cartwright said missed tackles, and not refereeing decisions, cost his side.

"It was a game I thought was in our control," he said. "Just a couple of one-on-one missed tackles and they made us pay for it. It's a bit of a shame. A couple of tries late in the half, that was enough.

"Forgetting how to win comes into it. I think that was the case tonight. It's not easy, this level of football."

He described Sunday's home game against St George Illawarra as must-win and had doubts over whether halfback Albert Kelly would be back from a leg problem.

The quietly-spoken McLean, meanwhile, said he was relieved to be back. "It was great to be part of that," he said. "I was on the edge there when they scored that last try, I thought they might score another one.

"It's just good to be back playing footy with the boys, all my mates."

Bellamy said the best part of McLean's return to first grade was that he now had something else to think about.

"His situation's quite unique I suppose and he had a lot of time think about that while he's been out," the coach said. "Having his mind occupied with something else has been good for him.

"We're slowly getting him more minutes and hopefully he can keep getting better.

"He likes to keep to himself, pretty much. His thoughts and emotions, he doesn't like getting out there but he handled the week OK. I thought he was reasonably strong tonight."